On Saturday we ended up in Patterdale. The weather forecasters had led us a merry dance, all week Northumberland was to be dry and sunny so we planned to go there. The Lakes was set to be pretty dire with strong winds and heavy rain. Saturday morning we checked the forecast, rain for most of the day in Northumberland with the Lakes being not so bad after all, still windy and not as much rain. So all change with the maps and buses. The forecasters might as well not bother to be honest, they should have a website that says "Sorry, we haven't got a clue" permanently on there. It was sunny when we arrived in Patterdale and we happily walked toward Side Farm. We planned to pitch on the lower slopes of Place Fell, maybe Low Birk Fell.

Side Farm ahead, Place Fell is behind

Further away there were a few showers and a rainbow appeared

Rainbow over Keldas

Rainbow now over Glenridding

We walked toward Silver Point on the shorepath enjoying the rainbow and the sunshine that we had. We'd seen signs about an organised run and a few signs on the path. We hoped we were going to miss them. One time we'd been in Borrowdale and we'd missed one bus because of them, having to stop every 10 seconds to let them pass on a narrow path.

Autumn colours

Beefy and Silver Crag ahead

Glenridding Dodd and one of the steamers

The cloud was low over the higher tops but we still had some nice views

Toward Hallin Fell

We only saw a few people about, it was very quiet, it is normally a very popular path along this shore path. The runners hadn't appeared. We stopped for our lunch below Scalehow Force and we saw a few more people about near here. We started ascending from near the waterfall. I must have missed the normal path and we ended up having to fight through bracken to reach the path I knew was above us. It also began to rain a bit on and off but it didn't amount to much

Scalehow Force and Low Birk Fell

Scalehow Beck

We couldn't cross the beck below Low Birk Fell because of the amount of water in it. We walked up beside the beck for a while trying to cross it and then had to climb up from it when the bank became too difficult to walk on safely.

Beefy went ahead and found a place to cross

We then had to walk back toward Low Birk Fell and the ground was quite wet and rough. This is defo a route for Karls Kut Price Tours.

On the way to Low Birk Fell

We got to Low Birk Fell and the wind here was so windy I didn't even attempt to touch the cairn. We dropped down below it to where we'd pitched before. We got the tent out and had started to erect it but the wind was swirling round and was quite strong even though we should have been sheltered it. We abandoned the pitch here and found another spot near Kilbert How.

Our pitch on Kilbert How

It was much less windy here, it was nicely sheltered, not the best view we've ever had but better to have an intact tent.

Fungi

Beefy and the MSR on Kilbert How, Gowbarrow Fell across Ullswater

We dropped down to get some water and we were pleased to find a stream on the way down to Scalehow Beck about three minutes walk away. It would have taken a lot longer to get it from Scalehow Beck. We got it filtering then had our tea. No sunset it was too cloudy but we did get to hear the male deer in the area making their presence felt. Their calls or grunts went on into the night though less frequent when it got dark. We hadn't seen any from where we were but we hoped to next day. We had some wine enjoying the sound of the deer. Day 1 was Patterdale - Side Farm - Silver Point - Scalehow Force - Low Moss Gill - Low Birk Fell - Kilbert How 8.5km with 463m ascent. Four hours 30 minutes waking time.

We slept quite well and had a bit of a lie in. We were packed away by 9 am. The wind was quite strong, the gusts were even stronger so we decided not to go up Place Fell as we had hoped. We walked up the slope a little but to see of we could spot the deer and we did see a few.

A stag on the slopes of Birk Fell, a bit blurred though.

Three females looking at us, again not a great photo

We descended to Scalehow Force and this time we got across beside Low Birk Fell the water level had dropped a bit

Low Birk Fell from the descent

We were walking back along the shore path toward Patterdale but going toward Rooking and Hartsop to get the bus.

Ullswater and Hallin Fell

Some deer below Scalehow Force

We heard the deer before we saw them, the male grunt. I didn't get a shot of the stag but beefy got a fab shot.

Scalehow Force

The view toward Silver Point

A slightly better view of the higher fells today. We got nearly at Silver Point and we saw some runners ahead. They were turning right up toward Silver Crag. It was the organised race we thought we were going to see yesterday. The runners were all very polite and thanked us as we stepped out of the way for them. We saw a woman dressed up in wedding dress running along. They were all very jolly and we didn't mind them at all.

We stopped for our lunch at Silver Point behind a rock sheltered from the wind and watched the runners

The runners on the shore path

Beefy on the way to Side Farm

Autumn at Rooking

The wonderful gardens at Crookabeck

Crookabeck

The permissive path near Deepdale Bridge

We got the bus at Cow Bridge at 2.15 and got the train from Penrith. Not a bad weekend, not a washout and we had some nice views and saw some deer. Day 2 was Kilbert How - Scalehow Beck - Silver Point - Side Farm - Rooking - Crookabeck - Beckstones - Permissive path to Cow Bridge.11km and 270m ascent. 4 hours and 30 mins walking time. At home and when I'd stepped into the bath I saw a black dot on my ankle. I pulled at it and it was stuck in my leg. It was so small I couldn't see what it was. I realised it might be a tick and I'd done the wrong thing. Stepped into hot water and then tried to remove it by pulling at it with my fingers!! Beefy brought the tick remover tool and out it came. I had to take a photo of the tiny black dot and enlarge it to see what it was and it was a tick.

The enlarged photo of the tick. It was less than 1mm in size.

So far so good, I have no symptoms of Lyme disease but crikey I will be more careful next time, I hadn't realised they might be this small, so small you can't make out that is a bleddy tick.

Great report and photos APril, I walked this region in August and these photos bring back happy memories. Re the weather, if its any consolation, the amount of times my plans change, has occurred several times. I actually just go with a few ideas instead of a concrete route these days and there have been times when I've made last minute changes whilst on the stagecoach bus to the starting point. I've got a DVD at home where Julia Bradbury says 'this is the weather which the Lakes are famous for', referring to its changeable nature.

Was the woman in the wedding dress running towards or away from the church?

She was running away from the church

@ ferman, thanks for the reassurance I know it is early days, I've been reading up on the symptoms, apparently the rash (if it appears at all) may not even be where the bite was and it may not be the circular type rash either. I'll be off to the docs if I get any of the other symptoms, with or without rash. I still have the dead tick in a zip lock bag and the photo as evidence

I never worried that much about ticks before but now knowing they can be so small that I can't see what it is makes me more nervous. I was wearing gaiters all weekend except for when we pitched the tent so I assume it either came into the tent or I picked it up when I left the tent to answer the call of nature. I was sitting outside for a while though on my chair, it could have been then, I'd taken the gaiters off I think

Lovely pictures (apart from the tick of course). Looks like you were lucky with the weather - I walked Troutbeck Tongue and intended to go on up to Sour Howes and Sallows, but the very very low cloud and persistent drizzle got to me after a couple of hours and I ended up driving home after Troutbeck Tongue. The camera stayed in the car!